11-04-20

Feel free to watch the devotional or read it below…

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
November 4, 2020
Scripture: Psalm 118:1-2, 5-6
Give thanks to the LORD because the LORD is good, because his faithful love lasts forever. Let Israel say it: “God’s faithful love lasts forever!” …In tight circumstances, I cried out to the LORD. The LORD answered me with wide-open spaces. The LORD is for me—I won’t be afraid. What can anyone do to me?

Thought for the Day: It is hard to remember what it was like to be in a crowd, but most of us know what it is like to feel stuck, painted into a corner or whatever best describes the experience brought about by quarantine. The author of the Psalm cries out from such a place. It is cramped, confining and restrictive. You can sense the discomfort and anxiousness, yet I love how the poetry of the Psalm renders God’s response with the image of wide-open spaces. This wide-open space is conceived in God’s love, a love described in the Psalm as faithful and lasting forever. The divine love existed before there was a beginning and shall exist long after there is an end. For such a love to be given to us, and to dwell within us, is to provide access to wide-open spaces. Anything described as everlasting is going to push away whatever obstacles or restrictions that attempt to encroach upon our personal space. In the wide-open space of sacred love, it is easier to breathe, to calm one’s anxiousness and to find a sense of peace. When you’re feeling a little trapped, spend some time with stories that reveal God’s love, as those stories can become an entry point into an experience of the everlasting gift of God.

Prayer: O Lord, I aspire to have more than an academic definition of your love. I yearn for an experience of that love and to find release from all that attempts to hold me back. Even if I only glimpse your love, it will allow me to know the vastness of your care, your kindness, your mercy, your grace. Such an experience is what I seek at this time. Amen.

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